Loving those clear skies, but ooooooo we are feeling that chill in the air. As you can see from all of the happy ladies pictured above, we took some time out on a sunny day at the end of last week to move the October flock of hens out into their new digs out in the field. This oooold raspberry patch has sat fallow for many years, so after the ladies work their magic on this patch for a while, we hope to bring it back online for brassica crops by 2020. It is worth noting that since moving these girls out into the field, we’ve found three tiny eggs in the nest boxes. There are three hundred in this flock, so it isn’t much in the grand scheme of things. But it is an early reassuring sign that Spring is on the way! That and the two cubic yards of seedling mix that just arrived in our driveway. This could be a big seeding week at the farm, and I couldn’t be happier about it. My cup also runneth over knowing that many of you out there have already signed up for your Spring Shares and beyond. I cannot express to you how much this helps us out as your farmers. Those pallets of potting mix, chicken feed and shipments of seeds come with sizeable pricetags and a whole lot of implied effort, but there is great peace of mind in knowing that we’re about to do incredibly hard work for great folks like YOU. If you haven’t signed up for your Spring Share yet, there’s still time to do so online or in the farmstand this week.

The ingredients that we’re putting on the CSA tables this week are standards by this point in the year--standards being a glorious euphemism for “same veg, different day.” I get it, and I’m right there with you peeps. I’m not even going to tell you what I would give for a gem lettuce salad right now. Which is why I have assembled a list of recipes to share this week in hopes that you, like me, might be inspired to try something familiar in a slightly new sort of way. Don’t worry. I’m not signing you up for molecular gastronomy—just jazzing up those standards a bit. For example, a traditional Potato-Leek Soup might get a late season glow-up with the addition of other roots, or with a plant-based version that incorporates smoked paprika, or dream big, ditch the soup altogether and enjoy a Potato Leek Pizza instead. Savory Roasted Pears? Yes please! Same veg—different way!